1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to hospital clothing, and more particularly to a patient hospital gown adapted to provide necessary access to a patient's body while also providing increased privacy, warmth, and comfort to a wearer of the gown.
2. Background Information
Most clothing worn by patients in a hospital and doctor's office setting is designed for the convenience of the medical professionals and not for the convenience of the wearer of the item of clothing. The very nature of the medical profession requires that various persons involved in the diagnosis, treatment and care of a patient have the ability to access various parts of the body of the patients that they are treating and caring for. Thus such a professional must have the ability to access various portions of a person's body so as to be able to perform a variety of functions including performing health assessments, taking vital signs, performing physical examinations, and attaching various required items to the body of a patient. In addition to this access, the placement of items onto or within a patient's body may result in a condition where these items such as an intravenous line or a cardiac monitoring device must extend a designated distance away from the body of the patient. Such devices include intravenous lines, catheters and diagnostic leads for various monitoring systems.
In order to accommodate the medical professionals who perform these various features most prior art patient coverings include large gaping openings which do provide access to the body by a medical professional however, these same large gaping openings also often times cause the body of the person wearing the garment to be left open and exposed. This condition thus limits the limited privacy or warmth to the wearer and results in the wearer of the garment being not only embarrassed but cold as well.
In order to address these issues, a variety of devices have been developed. One of these devices is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,243 to C. Leland Udell. This device describes a one-piece hospital gown made from a single piece of cloth that has a fastening device intended to connect in the back of the patient's body. Such a gown typically also includes two openings through which a patient extends their arms and which thus covers the front portion of a person's body. The back of the gown, as it is typically called, is generally open. In some instances a single fastening tie is utilized to tie the back of the gown together.
This device has several problems. First, while such a gown does cover a desired portion of the front side of a person's body, such a device generally leaves the back portion of a person's body open to plain view. The single tie which is attached to the device and which is intended to hold the sides of the device about the back portion of the person's body, is positioned in such a location that it is difficult for the wearer to tie. Thus, the closing of the back portion of the device is generally difficult and awkward. Even when such a connection is made, this connection is typically insufficient to adequately hold the rear portions of the gown together and as a result, the gown can be opened when a person engages in any of a variety of activities, including standing, sitting, bending over, or walking.
The large resulting opening that exists in the back portion of the gown is not desired by the wearer because it is uncomfortable, cold, and provides potential embarrassment, particularly to parties who seek as a matter of personal preference, to cover substantial portions of their body. Many times a party who wears one of these devices will attempt to hold the back portion of the gown closed while they move about so as to prevent the gown from opening. This is therefore a further hindrance to a wearer of the prior art gown because this creates an awkward and potentially embarrassing situation to the wearer, as the back of the gown may come open and expose more of the patient's body than they are comfortable showing.
These prior art devices also are of limited utility to the medical professionals because while these gowns do allow for access to the rear portion of a patient's body, such a gown also requires that all or a portion of the gown be removed in order to access the front portion of a patient's body. Thus, in a typical hospital situation, routine medical procedures such as placing leads for an electrocardiogram may require the movement of the patient so as to disconnect or unfasten the connection portion of the prior art covering so as to access the chest of the patient or such an action may require that the entire robe be lifted up and placed around the patient's face so as to have access to the patient's chest.
In addition to these problems, these types of hospital gowns also cause a variety of other problems as well. One of these problems is that the closing of the gown around the posterior portion of a patient causes portions of the gown to bunch into an uncomfortable wad behind a patient's back. This wad is not only uncomfortable to the patient, but can in some circumstances place the wearer at an increased risk for nerve damage or pressure sores as a result of this gown configuration. To avoid these problems patients are in many instances partially disrobed during the transfer process, this in many instances adds to the anxiety felt by the patients as they under go this process.
Another problem with the previously described gown design and other designs which wrap around a patient's body is that the after a patent is under general anesthesia the body weight of the patient makes removal of the gown very difficult, therefore in many circumstances, the gown is simply cut away, or the closure tabs on the gown are cut, thus rendering these gowns unusable for future patients.
A variety of other type of prior art devices have also been developed in an attempt to provide a patient gown with increased privacy, while still providing sufficient easy access to the body of the wearer of the gown. However, this has proved to be a difficult balance to be arrived at. Simply closing up the back of a typical hospital gown would provide increased privacy, however, it would limit the potential for access to a medical professional and this is unsuitable. In most prior art devices the more fitted that a gown or other such covering is, the less suitable for use in a hospital setting it is. Furthermore, the more individualized an article of clothing is, the greater cost for stocking, cleaning and tracking of these items. In such a circumstance, a professional would also be required to carry additional sizes to accommodate persons of various sizes. Furthermore, the greater number of parts that are incorporated into the gown, the greater the risk that a portion of a gown would be lost or mismatched. This results in an undesired level of complexity by the hospital personnel who must wash and keep track of all of these articles of clothing, as well as increased costs on the part of the health care facility due to increased number of pieces that could be potentially lost or damaged.
Typically among the prior art devices, the more private a gown can be made, the potentially more difficult such a device is to be placed and removed and the more difficult it is to obtain access to a patients' body. This access is required to perform a simple function such as bathing a person and is essential in the circumstance where life saving services are required to be performed. Also in the prior art, the positioning of various closing devices has been such that the connection of these devices is almost always awkward or impossible, thus making the placing and removing of such a device by the wearer extremely difficult.
Therefore what is needed is a hospital gown that provides adequate access to portions of a patient's body while simultaneously providing sufficient body covering so as to provide a wearer with comfort and warmth. What is also needed is a replaceable garment that provides a wearer with comfort and warmth, allows for access by medical personnel, and fastens in a location that is accessible by the wearer of the garment. What is also needed is a hospital gown that covers the back portion of a wearer, allows the wearer to close the device and allows medical personnel sufficient access when necessary to the portions of the wearer's body. In addition to the concerns of the medical professional and the patient, the gown that is used in a medical setting must also be easily washable and sterilizable so as to be worn by various persons. In such an arrangement multiple pieces that may be easily lost or mismatched are undesired. Additionally, limited numbers of sizes of dressings must also be provided for simplicity in organization while still being able to adequately clothe a variety of persons having multiple different sizes and shapes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hospital gown that provides adequate access to portions of a patient's body while simultaneously providing sufficient body covering so as to provide a wearer with comfort and warmth. Another object of the invention is to provide a replaceable garment that provides a wearer with comfort and warmth, allows for access by medical personnel, and fastens in a location that is accessible by the wearer of the garment. Another object of the invention is to provide a hospital gown that covers the back portion of a wearer, allows the wearer to close the device and allows medical personnel access through the garment to the portions of the wearer's body.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.